Saint Clair

Formed January 1, 1790 (1^st county)

Saint Clair County (257,403), Belleville (42,372)

The Modern style concrete and masonry building was built in 1976.  It is at Main and Illinois streets.  Illinois Street is Illinois State Highway 159.  Hellmuth, Obata, & Kasabaum and Weisentstein, Hausman, Ganschinietz & Klingel are the courthouse architects.  The grounds feature multiple fountains.  The county is established on January 1, 1790 as the 1^st county in the Illinois Territory.  Cahokia was the original county seat followed by Belleville in 1814.  Most counties in the southern part of the state were taken from this original county.  Governor Arthur Saint Clair of the Illinois Territory is the county’s namesake.  The county seat’s name is French for “beautiful city.” 

Saint Clair County government consists of a sheriff, an attorney, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 29 Board Members (legislative.)  Twenty-four Circuit Court Judges serve Saint Clair, Monroe, Perry, Randolph, and Washington counties and a court clerk serves Saint Clair County (judicial.) The county is in the southwest part of the state immediately across the Mississippi River from Saint Louis, Missouri.  The county center is 10.8 miles South-Southeast of Belleville nearer Freeburg.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Madison, Clinton, Washington, Randolph, and Monroe counties and Missouri. 

The area of the county is 657 square miles.  It is 28 out of 102 in the state.  It ranks 9 out of 102 in population in the state.  It has a density of 391.8 persons per square mile making it 9 out of 102 in the state.  Saint Clair County has 79.8% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 64 crosses east to west through the county from Clinton County to Missouri.  Interstate Highways 55/70 enter from Madison County, north, and join Interstate Highway 64 to exit into Missouri, west.  United States Highway 40 is joined with Interstate Highways 55/70 from Madison County to Missouri.  United States Highway 50 comes from Clinton County, east, and goes southwest into Monroe County.  The county’s overall shape looks like a fat number 7.  The Mississippi River forms its western border.  Belleville is located in the northwest quarter of the county.  Belleville is county seat and the largest city.  It is 16.5% of the county population.  This county is in the Saint Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area.